Plans of a Better Tomorrow
by RicoSuave-42
Summary: When a chance encounter leaves Vic with ideas he must take to prevent a war and a future from ever happening. Now he and the remaining Titans must decide the course of actions that will either prevent a war or let evil forge his name into history. A oneshot teaser leading to a bigger story.


**A/N: Read _A Ruined Beyond_ to understand what's going on in the story. Also, if - by chance - you've already read _A Ruined Beyond_, I would suggest reading it over again, since I updated it. As usual I do not own the Teen Titans, they are owned by DC Comics._  
_**

Hi, my name is Sarah Simms! I'm the wife of Victor or better known as Cyborg. And if you're wondering how we met... Damn I think, nevermind.

Ah, I remember the day that I met Cyborg or should I rather say Vic. Then again, I met Vic before Cyborg. Heh. I guess I have to start from the beginning then.

I'm the daughter of a mixed race parents: a Mexican mom and a white dad. I learned everything from my mom, from cleaning to cooking. She had to make sure that I knew these things before getting into a relationship, hell it almost sounds like a curriculum for an unspecified class requirement for learning how to be independent. Whenever my mom wasn't teaching a new recipe to cook, my dad always found a way to make sure that I had a small interest in cars. He would drive me in his 1968 mustang. Those were some of the best days I could remember.

Then I turned 18 and I was looking for something to do with my life. I worked jobs from working at diners, cashier, and as a waitress. Those were interesting days. I had to move to Gotham in order to work as an intern. That's when I met Vic in an online chat room, I forgot about the initial conversation, but all I know is that I wanted to keep talking to him. There have been times where we wanted to meet each other in person, but our personal lives kept getting the way of our love life. My internship forced me cancel anything that would be considered out of Gotham. Vic told me he couldn't afford to leave Jump City so that made things worse, no, _a lot _worse.

What I was doing?.. Oh yeah, I barely woke up at four in the morning! I had to wake up early to help prepare the food and activities for the children. Yeah, I remember now, because Cyborg at sent me a quick message stating that he was in Gotham. He said that we had to finally meet up and I gladly accepted the offer. That was until some guy named Red Hood and Robin decided to level an entire floor of an abandoned building and leave the city of Gotham in a state of disarray that resulted in my date/meeting (whatever you want to call it) with Vic being canceled. It sincerely ruined by whole day.

That was until Cyborg, by pure coincidence, stopped by where I was working and was stirring up such a storm that I didn't believe the kids at first. So when they finally showed me, he looked surprised to see me. At first, I thought, 'why would he be surprised to see a person working with kids with prosthetic limbs. It was only when I got a good look at him, I realized that Vic and him were one in the same people. Initially was furious at this fact because I didn't know that he was a hero, but what he told me made sense. Knowing my life was going to be in some form of constant danger, if we ever dated, that was a scary thought for me, but he did convince me to find a way to work things out with him.

I start to touch my growing belly and it's so unreal to think that we would even be having kids of our own. However, I wish that I didn't pregnant with his child at this time rather at a different point in time. I open my blinds and the early cloudy sun illuminates more people being dragged out of their homes, for no good reason. I see more of my friends going to buses filled with more ethnic people. Maybe they're getting rid of all non-white races. Some days, I wonder if I'm going to be the next person that's going to be pulled out of their own home. I've tried committing suicide to avoid a future covered with lies and deception, of living in constant fear, and questioning her own existence. I turn to face my husband, "Why do we have to live like this, Vic?" I ask him.

He looks at the ground knowing that he can't come up with the best possible answer so he walks towards me and hugs me to try to comfort me. "I wish I knew, Sarah." He admits and I hug him tighter. "Sarah?" My head movement alerts him, "What are we going to name her?"

I rub my belly again, "I was thinking Maxine." I smile at the name and I see Vic smile, too, approving of the name.

"I think this stress is starting to affect you, let's get more sleep, then you can mediate with Raven." He leads me back to our bedroom and I notice the clock is saying it's almost six o'clock in the morning.

"I suppose you're right about the stress." I smile at him, but I feel that sleep is the cousin of death. He opens the cover for me and I carefully slip in there. I look at the ceiling and begin to wonder if things had been different. I don't mean different as in Vic and I never meeting. No, I mean if we didn't live in this repressed world. It's scary to think that anyone could die just for speaking out against the government or its laws. Everyone follows so blindly into the slaughter-house.

No matter how much I want to tell myself that everything is going to alright and see the Titans overthrowing the government, seeing everyone grateful for their release of free-thinking and enjoying their lives, then visiting everyone who gave their lives for the people they cherished and loved. That fantasy will never take place, I know it won't, and it upsets me. We're losing this fight and they won't stop until every last one us is dead. We're outnumbered! This is a hopeless fight. Why you ask, because we're running out time and heroes. It's only a matter of time until they figure out where we're hiding and we have so few heroes remaining that the sons and daughters are joining in this fight to survive.

Days like these I wonder if my daughter will ever have a future. It troubles me so much knowing she'll have to do everything the government demands of her. Whether it is the forceful law of worshiping god no matter what or becoming her own free-willed person. As a mother it troubles me, at this moment, I understand Diana's own troubles.

My body slowly agrees to let body relax and rest despite my own thoughts of negativity. My breath enters a steady rhythm and neck pushes more into the squishy pillow. "I thought I had it worse, but this is- this is just hopeless." I overhear someone else's voice and my body can't move; I'm too scared to look at the person who's now in our secret house! I look at Vic and he nodes at me. With a great motion his arm transforms into cannon and aims it at whoever is in our house.

"Who are you?" He demands and I work the courage to stare at the stranger in our house. I can see horns on him, his jet black unibody covers his face, I can see the white of his eyes, and a crimson bat on his chest.. Honestly, he looks like a deer caught in headlights. I don't think he knew we were sleeping, nevertheless he flees by spreading his arms out and wings popping out his arms. Vic chases him but he came up empty-handed.

"Where did he go?" I ask him.

"My heat vision isn't picking up anybody; it's like he disappeared." He answers.

Then I look at the table he was near and I see a cylinder shaped technology resembling Vic's tech and a folder with god knows what's in there. I start walking to the small table and I open whatever's in there and there are papers with notes written all over them. "Vic, shine a light here." I point to him the documents and he shines a light with his handy-shoulder light on those documents. This looks like Vic's handwriting!

"How did I write that?" Vic - recognizing his own writing - raises an interesting point. He flips through pages of this folder, looking for anything that would make any sense to him. That was until he found a date on the papers claiming to be seventeen years into the future! "What happened?" Vic asks, wondering if we win this war.

After Vic discovered the date of the paper, his voice was talking, but his lips hadn't parted from each other. "If you're hearing this now, you should know that we failed." His voice sounded sad. "By now you're wondering what's in this folder after scrambling to figure out how this is from the future, so I will tell you; this folder contains crucial information pertaining to this war. You can stop the president from taking office and changing everything. If you're wondering why I can't go to the past myself, I would, but that would mean leaving everyone behind in my timeline. However, I sent you an updated version of Warp's time machine. Please don't ruin your only chance at preventing this war." He pleaded his final case.

I stare at Vic with scared eyes, wondering about the choices that have been brought among us. "What do we do?" I ask.

"We have to tell them, Sarah. They have every right to learn about we just learned." He tells me.

"But who do we send?" I reply.

He looks around, just pondering about this information. "I think everyone should give their opinions." I nod in agreement of his decision. "I'm going to call Dick and Gar and set up an emergency meeting." He picks up his communicator and begins dialing numbers and I turn on a light to see better and I look over the important documents. I go over the table of contents... Hmmm? A problem with Damian's DNA? It says that the problem exists in his DNA and could be cured with the right equipment, but we barely have medical equipment! Then Vic puts down the communicator and gets ready to leave our house, "I'll be back." He quickly kisses my cheek.

"Vic, I think you should the Titans."

He nods his head, "I'll put that into consideration. Sarah," I look into his eyes, "what made you come up with that idea?"

"Read this." I hand him the paper containing Damian's genetic defect and he reads over it.

"So the cloning process isn't perfect." He stares at me and I think he just came up with the same concluding idea as me. "If we send the Titans back and they give everything in this folder"

"Eventually someone will see that paper and hope they have a sample of Damian's blood." I finish his sentence.

"I love it when you finish my sentence." He smiles seductively and he gets closer to me.

"I know, but you have business to attend to." I shoot down his request, "But when you return home, we'll see." He starts walking away, "Vic?" He stares at me, "Come home safe."

"I promise."

***TT***

A man, in his early forties, enters an abandon warehouse and walks down a flight of stairs to be greeted by some of the remaining Titans consisting of Dick, Garfield, Donna, Raven, Jade, Wally, and Jinx. Dick stood up and addressed the man somewhat late man, "Vic, you said that you had valuable information, correct?" Vic nodded, "What kind of information do you have?" Dick was already forming new battle plans in head.

"It doesn't have to do with anything that will give us an advantage over the US-"

Before Vic could finish his statement, Jinx vented out her frustration, "If it doesn't have anything to do with the war, I'm leaving." Jinx already took five steps towards leaving the meeting.

"What if I told you we can save Jai?" Jinx stopped dead in her tracks at mentioning of her recently deceased son and gave a confused look to Vic. So Vic decided to repeat himself again, "What if I told you we can save Jai?" His eyes dart around the room, "And Roy? And Timmy? And Teether? And Melvin? And Bruce? And Kori? And Ryan?" He was ready to stop and he drew the attention of his audience.

"And Jericho?" An older yet desperate voice asked.

"Including Jericho, Slade." Vic confirmed and a mask-less Slade and Kole entered the scene with Slade holding someone tiny yet important to him; his sole reason he's teaming up with the Titans: his granddaughter, Chelsea. After his son, Jericho, was killed by government forces, Slade sworn to protect his granddaughter and her mother from harms way. Slade was already spoiling Chelsea with clothes, food, and some toys. "I'm surprised Chelsea hasn't woken up." He smiled at his granddaughter.

"Chelsea." Kole whispered happily, until a memory hit her. A memory that occurred over twenty years ago, on a small island hosting the Titans headquarters, when a group of teenagers were somehow teleported to the past. When the short-blonde haired girl taught her the word schway. "Oh my god! Chelsea!" Everyone looked strangely at the pinkette.

"What are you talking, Kole? She's with me." Slade quickly told the young mother.

"No, not that! Vic," She quickly turned her attention towards the half-robot who nodded at her, "what are you naming your daughter?" She suddenly asked.

"Maxine." He answered, "Look, Kole, I'm not-"

"What was the red-head girl's name?" He looked confused, not sure what the real purpose of the pinkette's sudden interrogation, "The one that visited us twenty years ago?"

He unsure of where his twenty-one questions was going, he answered, "Max." The second after he answered, "You don't think they were the ones that visited us in the past do you?"

"That was them. I'm sure of it."

"What are you talking about, Kole." Garfield's brain was starting to hurt.

"Do you remember when the Batman of the Future visited us?" And the man nodded, making the pinkette relax a little, "Well, the blonde girl that was with them had started a conversation with Jericho and I. When it came time for her to leave, I asked how the future and she told me everything was just going to be fine! I don't know why she would lie to me." Kole felt hurt that her own flesh and blood would lie to her.

"Maybe there's a reason for her lying?" Vic asked with an answer.

"Yes, but..." Kole coudn't finish her sentence.

"Let's read whatever's in here, first, then we'll figure out her reasons for lying to you." Dick made a plan to read whatever was in the folder, then list possible reasons why the older Chelsea would lie.

They began to look at each document with the utmost care in the world. Each sentences forming instructions to take down the dictator. There was three possibilities but two of them involved murder.

Jinx was getting ahead of everyone and spoke up, "What are we waiting for?' Jinx asked, "Shouldn't we start right now?"

"I was thinking about sending the second iteration of Titans into the past." Vic blurts out an idea.

"But they only have four members!" Wally states, knowing that his son was the fifth member.

Dick looked at his speedy friend with respect, but he enjoyed Vic's idea more. "Wally, you don't think that the younger Titans don't have personal reasons for trying to prevent this future from happening?"

"I'm not saying that they don't have motivation, but I was thinking that we should go back in time!" He counters Dick's argument.

"And what do you want to me to tell my younger self? That he loses his father figure, his wife, his eye, and unborn son? If that what's you want-"

Wally cuts off his friend, "No." He admitted and there was silence in the room for a while.

Until Jade spoke up, "If they succeed, what happens to us on this end?"

Vic responded, "If my calculations are correct, we should no longer cease to exist." He states.

Jade smiled, "That's all I wanted to know."

"Since we're agreeing to this idea, we should give them orders to at follow by." Slade said.

"Like what orders?" Garfield questioned.

"Since we're sending your children back, they should at least know to protect your younger selves at all costs." Slade gave an example.

"How much of the future should they tell our younger selves?" Donna asked.

No one was sure, the main reason was to avoid anything that could have a butterfly effect on them. "I'm guessing they should try avoid telling us anything." Raven said, but another thought was somewhat haunting her, "What if we find out anything about them?"

"I suppose they should reveal as little possible." Kole stated.

"Now that we have all of the paradox producing talk out of the way," Garfield started, "what's the plan for preventing this future?" He finally asked.

"Our best option is to try to create some form of controversy to get him out of political spotlight." Vic responds.

"I think we should meet in a couple hours." Dick recommends, "And we're bringing in the Titans so they know about this plan." Everyone exits the warehouse and return to their homes for a whole day of planning.

Before Kole left to go home with Slade, Vic approach the pinkette, "I think I know why she did what she did." Vic handed her a letter that was for Kole.

"Thank you, Vic. I hope you return home safe."

"I will," He smiled at her and starting leaving, "See ya." And Vic had walked away.

"Kole." The pinkette was reminded that it was her time to leave. As she entered the passenger side of the car, she saw baby Chelsea still sleeping, and Slade had noticed the letter in her hand. "What's the letter say?" He asked, hoping Kole would want to figure out its contents.

She ripped the letter open and began reading it:

'Dear mom,

I'm sure by now you realized that it was me, your daughter, that you were talking to in the past. First, I want to say that I'm sorry for not being truthful with you! I wasn't sure if I was supposed to tell you about the future. I don't think you wanted to know that the future is dark and scary. I didn't have the guts to tell you that. Second, I can see why you never wanted to talk about dad. He meant so much to you that it pained you to talk about him to me. I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to talk with him! Lastly, if Grandpa Slade is with you, tell him I said thanks for being the best grandpa in the universe!

Love,

Your daughter, Chelsea'

The fire of hope grew in Kole as she was smiled at the plan that the older Titans were planning. She knew that the future was going to change for her daughter. "So, what does the letter say?" Slade's curiosity grew as Kole finished reading the letter.

"The first two-thirds are for me and the last thirds says 'thanks for being the best grandpa in the universe!'" Kole and Slade smiled.

"I'm glad that my granddaughter loves me." Slade's smile grew wider, realizing that his granddaughter would love him.

* * *

**A/N: I've posted the main story already (_A Stolen Future)_.**


End file.
